District 5 Diary

Rob Anderson's commentary on San Francisco politics from District 5

Saturday, April 12, 2008

How the bike people prevail: "They show up at meetings"

The bike people have already successfully convinced officials to put a $100 million bike lane on the SF Bay Bridge[later: that's not true. Instead there's going to be a study of the issue]. They are now going for a bike lane on the Richmond-San Rafael Bridge but this time for a mere $53 million.

How are they so successful at promoting an essentially crackpot idea? A Caltrans spokesman explained it to Matier and Ross years ago:

"They show up at most of the public meetings," explains Caltrans spokesman Jeff Weiss. And not just the big ones, but those little subcommittee meetings that car drivers don't even know about, let alone show up for to voice their opinion. In the case of the Bay Bridge, the bicyclists have been making themselves heard since early 1997, when then-Gov. Pete Wilson proposed the new bridge. "They went from a position where they were a longshot to a unanimous vote of the (16-member) commission to build the lanes," says regional Metropolitan Transportation deputy Steve Heminger.